Revival Under Ezra

Last Sunday’s sermon was preached by Pastor Harry on “Revival Under Ezra” (Jeremiah 29:10-14; Ezra 1:1-5; Nehemiah 8:1-3 and 9-10; Nehemiah 9:1-3 and 5). The sermon and the whole service can be watched on our WIC YouTube Channel:

The prophet Jeremiah was right! In the very year that he died (586 BC), the Jewish nation was conquered by the Babylonians, who took the Jews to Babylon in captivity as slaves. Jeremiah says the Babylonian Captivity will last 70 years – and it seems to have indeed lasted that long, until the Persians (today’s Iranians – definitely a great civilisation historically) conquered the Babylonians, and the Persian leader Cyrus became emperor of a vast territory.

 

Cyrus was a pagan – but look how the Lord used him! He turned out to be exceedingly tolerant towards the Jews in Babylonia, and in fact urges them to return to their homeland, rebuild Jerusalem which had been totally devastated, and even rebuild their Temple, so they can worship their God again. So the Jews slowly drifted back home, as the Book of Ezra tells us, and started rebuilding the Temple. Did you know that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book in the Hebrew Bible? The Ezra part describes the early years of the return under Ezra, while Nehemiah continues the story.

 

Ezra was an educated priest and a great spiritual leader, with a special dose of wisdom from the Lord. But when he came to Jerusalem, about 80 years after the first settlers had drifted back, he was horrified by what he saw – the people had contaminated their purity by marrying pagan partners. Ezra knew that God was not pleased with such compromising with the world, and would not bless the nation. He might well have known Jeremiah’s prophecy, about God’s plans to bring the Israelites prosperity and a future of spiritual growth – but he also knew that these practices of the Jews were going to delay those plans. God does not bless people who don’t put their house in order. Behaving like the world behaves must come to an end first.

 

About 15 years after Ezra returned to Jerusalem, Nehemiah also returned with a third group of exiles, to rebuild the city walls. He was a talented organizer who had given up a responsible job in the Persian government, in order to rebuild the city. But if you read the fascinating book of Nehemiah, you’ll see that he had to face constant opposition from certain quarters. By God’s grace and a lot of prayer, Nehemiah finished his task – while Ezra was also there, as the spiritual leader. So now both the Temple and the city walls had been rebuilt, despite the opposition – and it was this putting one’s house in order that provided the basis for an amazing spiritual revival.

 

I was reading to you some of the main details of the revival. The people of Israel gathered in Jerusalem, and Ezra read to them the books of the Law – the first 5 books of the Bible. He just read and read, and the people listened attentively, from dawn till noon. There were no gimmicks; no slides; no coffee breaks. You’d have thought the people would fall asleep or drift away – but quite the opposite happened. The people were so moved by what the Bible said, that they began to cry. Tens of thousands of them! Instead of bringing them to a state of repentance, Ezra and Nehemiah had to comfort them, and tell them to go home and have a joyful feast! The people were already repentant, by God’s grace -what they now needed was to experience the joy of their salvation!

 

In the final part of the passage I read to you, we see that this revival was an ongoing process. The people had already repented and been blessed – but now it was starting all over again: fasting, confession of sins, hearing the Word of God, and worshipping the Lord for His goodness and holiness. All because the Israelites had put their house in order – and God could now give them revival and spiritual growth on a huge scale. He had kept His plan to prosper them and not harm them; to give them hope and a future.

 

I think the message is very clear to us. If your life is not right with God, you won’t be blessed. There will be sin there; self-centredness and selfishness; and worldliness. If you’re not honest with yourself, and with others, and with God – don’t be surprised if the Lord doesn’t fulfil your dreams, and doesn’t give you inner joy and peace. This principle works collectively too. God will not bless a nation that has turned away from Him. The principle works even in churches: there will be no conversions and revival if something in the church is not in order. Clean out the temple first – and then the blessing will come. The more the old ways of compromise are put aside, the more the light will shine through, and we will sense God’s presence like never before.

 

If there’s one picture that really speaks to me in today’s story, it’s that of the people listening to the Word. It wasn’t their effort. It was God opening their eyes, by making the Word come to life for them, and convicting them of their sins, so that they repented and did something about their situation. May God’s Word – also for us – be a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. Amen.